Discovery of oil in Bahrain
Descubrimiento del petróleo en Baréin
- Date
- 1932 · confidence high
- Place
- Jebel Dukhan, Bahrain
- Credited to
- Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco, a Standard Oil of California subsidiary)
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Bapco's well no. 1 struck oil in the Jebel Dukhan anticline, the first find on the Arab side of the Persian Gulf. Though not a large field, it opened the exploration of eastern Arabia.
Drilling began in October 1931 and oil was reached on 31 May 1932, according to Bapco sources; the drilling was run from Awali.
What it led to
- exploration of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar by American companies
- the Sitra refinery of 1936 and the Gulf's oil economy
- development of oil-era Saudi Arabia after 1938